In the Wake of Destruction
by Sigart
Summary: Stalin was going to have to give their own nuclear development top priority.. Hint of gore?


Well, just a quickie XD Sorry to anyone I may have misled with the title and summary :p

Thanks, as always, to my wonderful, glorious beta ^_^

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><p>Russia looked at the devastation around him. The absolute devastation. There was not a single house standing for... he wasn't sure how far the destruction went exactly. He also didn't know at which point he should start counting houses as "standing". Should he count it from the point of where more of the base construction was still upright? What if most of the roof was missing, the walls still whole? What if it was a stone construction that had faired better against the shock wave and fire than the wooden structures that surely must have existed around it? He just didn't know and frankly, it was ridiculous to even be thinking about it, however it was better to contemplate something meaningless than.. Russia drew a shuddering breath. It was better to think about something meaningless than the fact that he had never in his long life seen so much devastation in one place. Had never even imagined that humans could cause this much destruction. <em>Humans<em>. Well, and nations like himself, but they weren't scientists, any of them; they didn't have the necessary time free to get the necessary education nor did they have the time to dedicate to get involved in such a project. Humans had invented the atomic bomb and humans had dropped it.

And Japan had surrendered.

How quaint.

Then again, considering the destruction, it was very likely Japan had lost consciousness and his boss had surrendered. He had seen Japan, briefly, before he had attacked America, while America was still turning a mostly blind eye on the wars in Europe and Asia, while America still lived in his little bell jar of "himself, himself, himself". He had fought Japan in 1939, in that border conflict over Manchuria, when Japan insisted on calling it Manchukuo, and the Asian had been... fierce. Had refused to accept defeat until there was absolutely no chance of him winning and, as far as he had heard, the unofficial defeat had only made Japan more rigid. More determined to win no matter the cost.

And America... Russia wetted dry lips, shrugged his shoulders and wondered why he hadn't chosen to wear something more appropriate to the blistering heat. At the last Allies meeting, America had been going crazy, telling everyone willing to listen, and even those unwilling, that he had, in his own words, "invented the most awesome bomb ever" and that he intended to show how powerful it was against Japan. He had been ecstatic, giddy even, while he recounted the trial runs.

And looking straight at Russia.

The message had not been lost on the big nation; if he ever dared to take a step out of line, he would be the next victim of this so-called awesome bomb. Russia had not believed the bomb would have been all that awesome, and truth be told, he still didn't think it was awesome. Now, here, two weeks from the dropping and the streets had yet to be cleared of half-melted bodies, mutilated beyond any form of recognition. The smell of ash and death and something that he didn't like but couldn't place still hung in the air.

On the outskirts, where the wounded were being taken, people were truly beginning to die from an illness Russia had never seen before.

It was sickening. The way America, as late as yesterday, had been speaking of this with _pride_, like completely mutilating another nation, a nation who was already beaten and only fought on from pride, was anything to be _proud_ of. America hadn't even been over to see the site yet, had only seen military strategy pictures of the true targets' destruction and had happily returned to Europe to sort out the last details over there before he would sort out Japan as well.

Russia should probably return to Europe as well; America had promised him a large part of Eastern Europe in return for declaring war on Japan, which he had thank the lord, and there was still the matter of old Prussia and... Either way, he thought, once again surveying the scarred landscape, cityscape? Which was it, now? Either way he would have to protect his cute, new satellite states as well as his own people from America's madness. No matter the cost, no matter which means he would have to use, he would protect them, keep them close to him and keep them safe. Whatever he would have to do.

Stalin was going to have to give their own nuclear development top priority.

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><p>Thanks for reading! Please, R&amp;R, guys!<p>

Historical notes (because you cannot have a fic like this without 'em XD)

The bomb over Hiroshima killed more people than any other one bomb in the history of mankind (though the bombings over, uh, Tokyo I believe, which was the cause of 78.000 deaths in the first night, admittedly killed more. Only that was not one bomb).

The illness Russia's never heard of before would be radiation sickness. I don't suppose I need to tell you how many people has died later (aka not in the initial blast) from this. Additionally, in Japan, after the bombs, the survivors were shunned in Japan due to fear of the radiation. For Example, the people had no chance of finding a spouse due to terror of what the radiation might do to their kids and so on and so forth. These people have been given the term "hibakusha".

Humm... Hiroshima was a military city until the bombings, the reason it was targeted. Now it is something of a mecca for pacifism.

Just after the bombings, it was not allowed to post photographs of the site in American papers, causing the Amrian population to be largely ignorant of the consequences of this for quite a while. Ah, propaganda is a beautiful thing XD

The bombs were dropped for several reasons, all of which will not be listed here, but among them -were- an implied threat to Soviet Russia. Another was to avoid a long, drawn-out ground battle and even more loss of life of American soldiers.


End file.
